Mexican Congress

After two weeks of intense battle, all-night sessions and concern by the ruling party that a canvass might never be finished, Mexico's new, sharply divided Congress took office Wednesday, just in time to receive President Miguel de la Madrid's final "state of the nation" speech today. Members of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, breathed a sigh of relief, saying they had avoided a "constitutional crisis" by installing a Congress before the Sept. 1 deadline.

Maybe it was all talk. Radio anchor Carmen Aristegui, one of the best-known news personalities in Mexico, has been rehired by the broadcaster that dropped her after she called on President Felipe Calderon to answer unsubstantiated rumors about his drinking. Aristegui and MVS Communications issued a joint announcement Tuesday saying she would be back on her morning news show next week. Aristegui's dismissal last week ignited protests by fans and stirred debate over press liberties and journalistic responsibility in Mexico's evolving democracy.

Next time you pop across the Mexican border for a visit, remember to leave your AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle at home. This year, 123 U.S. citizens have been arrested in Mexico on weapons charges, according to the U.S. Embassy here, and about 70 Americans--including an Orange County man--are now being held, accused or convicted of violating the country's strict Firearms and Explosives Act.

Mexico's Congress passed a $7.5-billion package of new taxes Monday, including new levies on telephone services, soft drinks and cigarettes, meant to boost government income and ease dependence on oil exports. The taxes were drawn up following months of debate by the nation's main political parties after they rejected key elements of President Vicente Fox's fiscal reform package presented in April. New revenues from the tax reforms were estimated at $7.

I blinked as I read the Mexican Congress' reaction to the new U.S. immigration law (April 3). The Mexican Congress fears that the new law "will flood Mexico with newly unemployed compatriots." Mexico should examine the reasons these people left in the first place. The government should focus on its economy and the lack of opportunity for many of its citizens, rather than on internal U.S. immigration reform. Mexican nationals came here in search of a decent standard of living (jobs, education, health care)

Re "Fox Vows Better Ties With Mexican Immigrants in U.S.," Nov. 11: Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox's idea to create congressional seats in the Mexican Congress to represent the 7 million immigrants who reside in the U.S. violates U.S. territorial sovereignty. Fox needs to understand that the Mexican government's authority stops at the border. A system of absentee voting similar to that which the United States has should be adequate to allow Mexican nationals to vote in Mexican elections.

The Times' exciting coverage of the election of Vicente Fox as the new president of Mexico included an informative piece ("PAN Pioneers Went From Shadows to Day in the Sun," July 7) about the dedicated long-suffering of the National Action Party (PAN). Mexico's center-right PAN is the sister party of the Republican Party of the United States and the Conservative Party of Great Britain. As PAN emerged on July 2 from the Mexican political wilderness, what U.S. news coverage failed to give was an adequate picture of the enormous impact of PAN President Luis Felipe Bravo Mena in this phenomenon of democracy.

The report published about the outcome of the meeting between U.S. President George Bush and Mexico's President Carlos Salinas de Gortari in Monterrey, Mexico, states that "the Mexican government showed a new willingness to give American companies a role in its state-owned oil monopoly" (Part A, Nov. 28). That view is further stressed in your editorial ("President Salinas Shows the Oil Card," Nov. 29), by presenting Salinas as gambling with a new card, "the oil card," which, in turn, is seen as "a stunning crack in long-held Mexican policy."

Americans remember 1968 as a year of crisis. Vietnam brought down the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago exploded into street violence. Mexican memories are no less dramatic. That was the year of the Olympic Games in Mexico City and an outburst of anti-government student demonstrations that shook the foundations of the oligarchy.

Maybe it was all talk. Radio anchor Carmen Aristegui, one of the best-known news personalities in Mexico, has been rehired by the broadcaster that dropped her after she called on President Felipe Calderon to answer unsubstantiated rumors about his drinking. Aristegui and MVS Communications issued a joint announcement Tuesday saying she would be back on her morning news show next week. Aristegui's dismissal last week ignited protests by fans and stirred debate over press liberties and journalistic responsibility in Mexico's evolving democracy.

A Zapatista envoy and members of Mexico's Congress agreed Friday that the masked rebels will make an unprecedented entrance onto the floor of the lower house next Wednesday to lobby for Indian rights. Meanwhile, moving to meet rebel conditions for reviving peace talks, President Vicente Fox announced the closure of a fifth military base in the Zapatistas' Chiapas territory and repeated a promise of amnesty for imprisoned rebels.

Re "Fox Vows Better Ties With Mexican Immigrants in U.S.," Nov. 11: Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox's idea to create congressional seats in the Mexican Congress to represent the 7 million immigrants who reside in the U.S. violates U.S. territorial sovereignty. Fox needs to understand that the Mexican government's authority stops at the border. A system of absentee voting similar to that which the United States has should be adequate to allow Mexican nationals to vote in Mexican elections.

The Times' exciting coverage of the election of Vicente Fox as the new president of Mexico included an informative piece ("PAN Pioneers Went From Shadows to Day in the Sun," July 7) about the dedicated long-suffering of the National Action Party (PAN). Mexico's center-right PAN is the sister party of the Republican Party of the United States and the Conservative Party of Great Britain. As PAN emerged on July 2 from the Mexican political wilderness, what U.S. news coverage failed to give was an adequate picture of the enormous impact of PAN President Luis Felipe Bravo Mena in this phenomenon of democracy.

Jose Jacques Medina did not flee Mexico in search of work or opportunity. He left because he knew what might happen if he stayed. In 1973, he was a 28-year-old attorney, a leader of the Mexican student movement fighting for democracy and workers' rights. That year, he was arrested and accused of attempting to kidnap the dean of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. Jacques Medina faced a harsh choice: If he stayed, he could be killed or imprisoned.

Next time you pop across the Mexican border for a visit, remember to leave your AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle at home. This year, 123 U.S. citizens have been arrested in Mexico on weapons charges, according to the U.S. Embassy here, and about 70 Americans--including an Orange County man--are now being held, accused or convicted of violating the country's strict Firearms and Explosives Act.

Americans remember 1968 as a year of crisis. Vietnam brought down the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago exploded into street violence. Mexican memories are no less dramatic. That was the year of the Olympic Games in Mexico City and an outburst of anti-government student demonstrations that shook the foundations of the oligarchy.

Jose Jacques Medina did not flee Mexico in search of work or opportunity. He left because he knew what might happen if he stayed. In 1973, he was a 28-year-old attorney, a leader of the Mexican student movement fighting for democracy and workers' rights. That year, he was arrested and accused of attempting to kidnap the dean of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. Jacques Medina faced a harsh choice: If he stayed, he could be killed or imprisoned.

In his five months in office, Mexico's President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has taken some dramatic steps to restore confidence in his troubled nation, ordering the arrest of suspected drug lords and corrupt business and labor leaders. This week his new government announced regulatory changes that, while less dramatic, could prove every bit as important. In an effort to revive a stagnant and shrinking economy, the Salinas administration Monday announced a sweeping liberalization of the rules governing foreign investment in Mexico.

Democracy is coming to Mexico with an unexpected twist. On July 6, voters turned the tables and shifted power from the traditional supremacy of the president to the unfamiliar authority of Congress.

Mexico narrowly averted a political crisis Sunday as the longtime ruling party dropped its threat to boycott the first Congress in seven decades not under its control. The announcement ended a tense standoff in which the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, at one point threatened to anoint its own, separate lower house of Congress. The impasse nearly forced a postponement of President Ernesto Zedillo's State of the Union address today.